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Pa. pastor, wife want underfed kids charges tossed

The Associated Press

Updated:
07/12/2013 09:06:15 AM EDT

SMETHPORT, Pa.—Attorneys for a northwestern Pennsylvania pastor and his wife want a judge to throw out child endangerment charges filed against them for allegedly withholding food from their three adopted children as punishment.

State police charged 43-year-old Mark Hooper and 40-year-old Susan Hooper in March, a month after their 9-year-old daughter ran away and told authorities she wasn't allowed to eat until she correctly finished her math homework while being homeschooled. A district judge in April agreed there was enough evidence for the couple to stand trial after the children—another girl, age 11, and her 10-year-old brother—testified about begging for food from neighbors and being fed oatmeal laced with red pepper flakes.

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